Johnson, Williams carry No. 10 Miami women past BC

BOSTON – Boston College coach Sylvia Crawley is hoping that having her team watch film on its own will get her Eagles' players out of their funk.

The Eagles were overmatched for much of the game, falling to the 10th-ranked Hurricanes 88-57 on Sunday for their eighth straight loss.

"We've given them game tapes and they're going to watch it themselves together to see what we saw," Crawley said. "Sometimes it's different when you're on the court. We're trying a lot of different things with this group. They're young. We're trying to help them be visual learners and not to make the same mistakes."

Boston College committed 15 of its 20 turnovers in the first half and gave up nine of 23 offensive rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.

"We talked about if we can take care of these two things 'You've got to box out and you've got to take care of the ball. If we can take care of that we've got a chance to chip away.'"

They never did.

The Hurricanes (19-3, 8-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) never trailed and pulled to a double digit lead on Riquna Williams' basket in the lane 5:44 into the game. Their advantage never dropped into single digits the rest of the way.

Shenise Johnson scored 16 of her 22 points in the opening half to lead Miami to its eighth straight win.

Williams had 15 of her 18 points in the first half while Stefanie Yderstrom added 15 points for Miami, which hasn't lost since dropping its conference opener at North Carolina on Jan. 2.

Tessah Holt paced Boston College (5-16, 0-8) with 12 points.

Williams, who needs six points to become the program's fifth player to reach 2,000, also grabbed eight rebounds. Johnson became the fourth to reach the 2,000-point mark earlier this season. She had nine boards.

Miami missed its first two shots from the floor before its superior tandem of Johnson and Williams combined with its pressure defense to take charge.

Johnson missed the first shot of the game — a short jumper in the lane — but hit six of her next eight during the first half. She scored eight of her team's initial 16 points as the Hurricanes pulled to a 13-point lead on her 3-pointer.

After Johnson's offensive surge, Williams dominated, scoring 11 straight Miami points and 13 of 16 as the Hurricanes pushed their lead to 27-11 midway into the half.

Johnson's two free throws gave the Hurricanes a 41-16 edge, their largest lead in the opening half.

Miami led 48-27 at intermission.

The Hurricanes pushed their lead over 30 points (61-29) on Williams' basket early into the second half. They came out after intermission and scored 13 of the initial 15 points, making sure the Eagles wouldn't give them any threat.

Williams came down awkwardly after a basket late in the first half and walked to the bench gingerly, but she started the second half wasn't affected by the fall.

The Hurricanes entered the game leading the conference averaging 14.3 steals per game.